We’re about a week away from the premiere of the latest installment in the Star Wars saga: The Last Jedi. Almost three years have passed since The Force Awakens stormed the box office and fans of the franchise - both old and new - are expected to make the Last Jedi the biggest movie event of the year.

With numerous cliffhangers leftover from The Force Awakens and new questions stemming from The Last Jedi’s cleverly crafted trailers, millions have flocked to social media to voice their thoughts on the new film. Given all this chatter, our Los Angeles coding bootcamp wanted to gain a deeper understanding of how the Star Wars fanbase collectively feels heading into opening weekend. Using Twitter’s API and data science techniques, our analysis showed that Star Wars fans overall are dreading to find out what happens in The Last Jedi.

Dire feelings towards the film extended to the film's three most popular characters also. Tweets discussing Kylo Ren, Rey, and Luke Skywalker (the three most mentioned characters in our data set) all generated negative polarity scores.

The histogram above shows the distribution of positive and negative tweets concerning Rey, the mysterious heroine from The Force Awakens. An overwhelming majority were negative. While this might reignite memories of the racist and sexist #BoycottStarWars movement, we can partially attribute the negativity to the rumors swirling of Rey's flirtations with the Dark Side. As @FelicityRidley's tweet shows, some folks are concerned about this potential plot twist.

Luke Skywalker, seen in the final minutes of The Force Awaken and expected to play a significant role in The Last Jedi isn't immune from the negativity either. A majority of Luke-related tweets received a polarity score less than zero with a median polarity score of -0.27.

So what's gone wrong with the main protagonist from the original series? Many are starting to question whether Luke is in fact the Chosen One and some like @PracticallyGeek are nervous his storyline comes to an end in The Last Jedi.

Data Science Used We

To understand public sentiment around Star Wars: The Last Jedi, we undertook a three-step process.

First, we compiled a dataset over 33,000 Star Wars related tweets from the dates November 22nd to December 1st. Pulled using Twitter’s API search function, our data set included any tweet that contained one or more of the following terms: Star Wars, Last Jedi, #starwars, #lastjedi, and #maytheforcebewithyou.

Next, we honed in on two data science tools to conduct a sentiment analysis of the tweets in our dataset. Sentiment analysis is a natural language processing term that refers to the ability of computers to assign a sentiment score to written text. The first tool, the vaderSentiment Python library allows the computer to derive a polarity score for each tweet on a scale from -1 to 1. Data scientists use vaderSentiment frequently for social media sentiment analysis because of its ability to analyze short pieces of text. The second tool, the TextBlob Python library is a general purpose NLP tool that allows the computer to assign a subjectivity score for each tweet on a scale from 0 to 1.

]]>Thinkful, the school which provides 1-on-1 learning of web development and data science with industry experts, announced today that it has acquired Viking Code School and The Odin Project. The investment will advance the company’s mission to provide access to high growth tech careers and deliver top talent to]]>https://www.thinkful.com/blog/thinkful-acquires-viking-code-school-and-the-odin-project-continues-expanding-community/21f425da-c392-48a1-8a85-1859ebe28a3dTue, 05 Dec 2017 15:05:03 GMT

Thinkful, the school which provides 1-on-1 learning of web development and data science with industry experts, announced today that it has acquired Viking Code School and The Odin Project. The investment will advance the company’s mission to provide access to high growth tech careers and deliver top talent to its employer network.

“Both Viking and The Odin Project are outstanding communities of web developers – it’s a privilege that Erik and his team have chosen us to support their community going forward,” said Thinkful CEO Darrell Silver. “By combining two of the best programs in the industry, we will continue to provide students the quality education our organizations are known for, while training the tech talent employers are searching for nationwide.”

The companies began talks earlier this year and the deal was finalized in November 2017. This is Thinkful’s first acquisition, signaling the continued growth of the company which became profitable in 2016.

“I have a healthy respect for what the team at Thinkful has built and admiration for their fanatical focus on creating something that truly improves the lives of their students,” said Erik Trautman, CEO of Viking Code School and Founder of The Odin Project. “There are a lot of programs that claim to help students launch their careers but none that come close to the kind of depth and rigor that the team at Thinkful have been able to achieve. I'm thrilled that we have found a way to work together and could do so at such an exciting time in the arc of both programs.”

Viking provides online training to developers and software engineers while The Odin Project is a open source platform with over 80,000 community members worldwide. Existing Viking students will continue learning with Erik and his team. Students considering Viking now have a direct path to Thinkful’s Full Stack Flex, Engineering Immersion and Data Science programs, all of which come with a job guarantee.

“We believe that communities can make a real difference if you find the right balance of impact and motivation,” noted Ann Miura-Ko, Partner at Floodgate and Thinkful Board Member. “It is the reason why Thinkful is the only education platform that has continued impact long after the class is over. We are tremendously excited about growing that capability with Odin and Viking.” Floodgate led Thinkful's series seed in 2014.

In 2015, Viking was the first online school to offer Incomes Share Agreements (ISA), where students only pay when they get a qualifying job. Thinkful offers several flexible options, including ISA’s, to ensure those with ambition have access to education. For those who are interested in finding out more or enrolling in Thinkful’s upcoming cohorts, visit Thinkful.com.

“We are looking forward to supporting Viking and The Odin Project for years to come,” stated Silver.

About Thinkful

Thinkful is a new type of school that brings high-growth tech careers to ambitious people everywhere. The company provides 1-on-1 learning through its network of industry experts, hiring partners, and online platform to deliver a structured and flexible education. Thinkful offers programs in Web Development and Data Science, with in-person communities in up-and-coming tech hubs around the U.S. To join the Thinkful network visit thinkful.com.

Since Thinkful’s founding in 2012, thousands of students have become developers thanks to 1-on-1 mentorship. In honor of Thinkful turning 5, we chatted with Thinkful mentor Sara Chipps, CEO of Jewelbots and Co-Founder of Girl Develop It. Sara talks about what it’s like to be a mentor, the value of a coding education, and her mission to make the technology industry more inclusive.

You recently joined Thinkful’s mentor community. What motivated you to do so?

I love working with new developers. It’s my favorite thing to do. Answering their questions makes me a better developer. I think coaching beginners through that really difficult initial time of, “Oh, wait, this is really hard,” where we often lose them is super-important.

Also, I have a friend who’s going through the [Full Stack Flex] program right now, who recommended Thinkful to me. It has been a great experience so far. It’s a lot of fun.

Tell us more about your experience as a mentor. Are there any interactions with students that stand out to you?

Every time you sit with a student and you can help them pass a roadblock that they hit is impactful. I have worked with three different students so far. All of them have been great and super-smart. Each has a different learning style and different ways of approaching problems.

As far as a particular moment that has been impactful, the other day one of my students connected to me on LinkedIn. I was excited because I know that they are going to take me up on my offer to help them when they’re done with the program. If they want to reach out or if they want some advice, I’ll be there.

1-on-1 mentorship is a key component of Thinkful’s education model. Do you or did you have mentors that helped you get to where you are today?

Oh, always. That is why mentorship is so important. So many of us have really benefited from mentors in our careers, and it’s our duty to do the same for others.

I had a lot of mentors from very early in my career. Probably the biggest way that they helped me was just showing me that my concerns, the places I got stuck or places I thought I was falling short were normal. It’s common for developers to fear that “I’m too dumb for this,” or “I’m uniquely bad at this.” However, when you talk to someone who has been doing it for a lot longer than you have and they’re like, “No, everyone feels this way at some point,” that’s super-helpful.

What advice do you have for people that are interested in becoming a mentor?

One big lesson that I learned since becoming a mentor is to listen more than you talk. Often our knee-jerk reaction is to jump in with advice or tell people how to fix things, and sometimes people just need an ear. Work on listening to listen and not to respond. I think that is a good way to be a great mentor.

What about people that are on the fence? What would you say to them?

A lot of us get just as much out of mentorship as we put into it. So I would encourage people to just look at it as an investment in yourself. It’s a future investment in networking, right? Hopefully all of your mentees will surpass your career in great ways and can help you in the future. So, for me, it’s part of my investment time.

Also, I think that everyone has something they can contribute, whether it’s “I have a similar backstory to you” or “Here’s how I approach difficult problems.” You don’t realize how much you know compared to a beginner until you actually start talking to them.

As you know Thinkful recently turned 5. Being a coding education veteran, what has been the most exciting change in the industry over the past five years?

People are starting to look at the price tags of universities compared to the price tag of a coding program. The other day I learned that [name of university omitted] is $70K a year. Coding bootcamp programs have higher placement grades than traditional universities as far as getting jobs out of a program.

People are really starting to analyze which is the better investment for my life. I’m not saying don’t go to a four-year university; education is very important any way you can take it. But, if you’re looking for on-the-job experience and the ability to quickly transition to a team that is using a coding language that you are now fairly well-versed on, I think people are starting to gravitate toward learning in nontraditional ways.

The price tag of traditional education is one barrier to entry into the technology field and you have dedicated almost your entire career to removing barriers specifically for women. What are some of the other big roadblocks that still exist?

That’s a good question. We’re lucky that a lot of those people [of tech's less inclusive past] are retiring out of the field and [we're now] welcoming a generation of more accepting, open, and inclusive developers.

But if there’s anything I could get rid of, it would be the culture of “I know this better than you do” and “I need you to know that.”

Besides being a mentor and activist, you also are a product developer and CEO. Could you tell us more your company Jewelbots?

The Jewelbots are a bunch of bracelets that you can code. They use Bluetooth to detect when your friends are nearby and react to them, and allow you to send secret messages. You can also code them (using C++) to do fun things like play games or have special friend interactions.

Recently, you’ve been traveling around the country promoting Jewelbots. At some stops, your users give talks rather than you. That must be a highlight...

Oh, yeah. That’s the best part. When you have a 13-year-old onstage explaining to you how C++ works, that’s some great stuff. Meeting our local users and seeing how Jewelbots is helping them grow not just as learners but also as educators has been really cool.

One final question: Bill Nye endorsed Jewelbots. How did that happen, and what was your reaction when you heard the news?

That was a total surprise to us. We didn’t talk to him; we hadn’t talked to any of his people. He was starting the same time that we were, and I checked my e-mail one day and I saw that video from Bill Nye endorsing Jewelbots. I just screamed really loud in the middle of the office.

Join the Thinkful Mentor Community

Help Sara and Thinkful educate the next generation of developers. Apply to be a Thinkful mentor today.

Forget the MLB playoffs or The Bachelorette. The biggest competition in the US is The Great Amazon HQ2 Sweepstakes. After increasing its revenue by $70 billion between 2010 and 2015, starting the ‘smart speaker’ category, and buying Whole Foods, Amazon decided that it’s time to branch out. Last month, the Seattle-based tech behemoth announced that they are seeking a location for a second headquarters to accommodate their rapid growth.

While some of these proposals may seem over the top, the prospect of bringing a reported 50,000 high-paying jobs to their area would excite any city official. However, don’t expect Amazon to pick a location solely based on a clever campaign. In fact, they are quite particular about desired characteristics for their new HQ.

We used the characteristics they laid out, along with modern data science techniques, to project Amazon’s most likely choice for their new HQ. Check it out:

Data Acquisition

With nearly 3000 cities in the United States, we first created a “short-list” of eligible cities. We narrowed down our list to 35 cities based upon two requirements in Amazon’s RFP:

Metropolitan population greater than a million.

Proximity to an international airport with direct flights to DC, New York, San Francisco and Seattle.

Next, we combed through Amazon’s specifications list to identify a collection of measurable features for the eligible cities. For each feature, we found a corresponding data set that we could use to complete our analysis. In all, nine of the criterion laid out by Amazon had workable data sets.

Measures how spread out a municipality is. The less sprawling, the more likely a city will meet this requirement.

Analysis

To determine which city should win “Amazon’s Next Top Headquarters,” we decided to employ a popular data science method called recommendation systems. For example, this technique helps Netflix suggest new shows to watch and Amazon recommend new things to buy.

First, we standardized our data. This is a common technique in data science to shape different data onto the same scale. Standardization resulted in the creation of a new dataset where the mean of every feature is 0 and the standard deviation is 1. Utilizing the maximum values from each of the features, we first created a (fictional) best possible city.

Next we calculated a similarity score between every real city in our data set and this fictional city. The closer the real cities features were to those of the fictional city, the better suitor it was for the HQ competition. We derived the similarity scores by calculating the euclidean distance between the fictional city and every real city in our dataset.

Our analysis determined the best city for Amazon’s HQ2 is…

Washington DC

Like Washington DC’s mayor’s office, data science says that Amazon’s best choice is #obviouslyDC. The Washington DC area possesses many qualities that Amazon is looking for in its ideal location including a highly educated population, an extensive transit system and a burgeoning reputation as a hip millennial town.

Compared to the other cities, Washington is:

First in percent of population with a Bachelor’s Degree or higher.

Third in life quality.

Fourth in transit score.

Ninth in diversity.

The four runner-ups are Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Austin. One could say that the Acela corridor made an extremely strong showing in our analysis.

The complete rankings of all 35 cities on our “short-list” is presented below. The methods employed in this article are a small sample of the many data science and analysis skills taught in the Thinkful Data Science bootcamp. More information about this program and our DC coding bootcamp can be found on our site.

Cite Our Analysis

If you are interested in sharing our analysis on your site or publication, we would appreciate if you included the following attribution:

This graphic uses the average data scientist salary by state along with a state’s cost of living index in order to rank the best states to live in if you are earning a data scientist salary. Nationally, the average data scientist salary is $130,134 and the top 5 states included Kansas, Arizona, Illinois, Texas and Wisconsin. One more thing to remember - since data scientists are currently in high demand, many even find they can work remotely for a company.

NOTE: There were a number of states that did not have enough data science salary data to include here. This includes Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming, and West Virginia.

]]>Students can fund an education three ways: paying upfront, taking out traditional loans, or increasingly, by taking part in ISAs. Given how new ISAs are, we work with every student to weigh the tradeoffs between each payment plan. The core advantage of funding an education with an ISA compared to]]>https://www.thinkful.com/blog/are-income-share-agreements-right-for-me/aa3729f6-e323-4cdd-b485-8bc38d8923b5Thu, 14 Sep 2017 14:00:00 GMTStudents can fund an education three ways: paying upfront, taking out traditional loans, or increasingly, by taking part in ISAs. Given how new ISAs are, we work with every student to weigh the tradeoffs between each payment plan. The core advantage of funding an education with an ISA compared to debt is that the ISA payments adjusts to what you can afford based on income; the core advantage of debt is you know exactly what you’re responsible for paying regardless of how successful you are.

To decide which is right for you, consider four possible outcomes. For each, weigh the difference in cost between using an ISA and using debt, and consider whether your budget would work in either case:

Assume you land a job with an income just over the minimum income threshold of the ISA: since you won’t make payments if your income is below the minimum threshold, this is the worst case in which you’d make payments. For example, if the ISA has a minimum income threshold of $40,000, plan for that as your income and see if the resulting budget allows for your expected monthly needs, and compare those payments to expected debt payments. Generally speaking, at the minimum income, your monthly payments with an ISA will be lower than they would be with debt.

Assume an income moderately higher than the minimum threshold: the second case to consider would be an income moderately higher than the minimum threshold. A reasonable estimate for this might be 50-80% higher than the minimum income, so if the minimum is $40,000, planning for an income of $60,000 - $75,000 (where in that range likely depends on geography and professional experience). In this middle outcome, weigh the payments you’d make under an ISA vs those you’d make with a loan, and consider the impact of those payments on your budget.

Assume a high income: Finally, consider what happens if your income is significantly higher leading you to pay the cap amount. The cap will likely kick in at around 2-3x the minimum salary. Assume and income of 2.5x the minimum, and weigh what your ISA payments would be against expected debt payments. If you’re expecting this type of outcome based on your educational or professional background, you’ll likely find traditional debt preferable, as an ISA will likely be more expensive than taking out a loan.

Finally, consider the chance that some life disruption forces you to remain out of workforce an extended period. In this case, you wouldn’t make any ISA payments. This is where an ISA ends up providing some measure of insurance; you would fulfill an ISA’s obligations if you remain out of the workforce, whereas if you chose debt, you would default. This insurance-like feature of ISAs is one of its main draws.

]]>To help students understand ISAs, we've created this glossary of the key terms in every ISA agreement. On an ISA, you pay a fixed share of your income over a set period of time instead of paying upfront or using debt. Unlike with a loan, with an ISA, your payments]]>https://www.thinkful.com/blog/income-share-agreements-key-terms/a8974133-c503-4525-aa4d-706c41d46c55Wed, 13 Sep 2017 14:00:00 GMTTo help students understand ISAs, we've created this glossary of the key terms in every ISA agreement. On an ISA, you pay a fixed share of your income over a set period of time instead of paying upfront or using debt. Unlike with a loan, with an ISA, your payments will vary based on your income: make less, and you’ll pay less; make more, and you’ll pay more. ISAs were created to prevent unsustainable debt (large monthly payments, low salary) and to align incentives between schools and students.

Here are the key terms to review when considering any ISA:

Income-share: The income share is the percentage of income that you’re responsible for paying on a monthly basis. Most programs offering ISAs ask for anywhere from 8% to 25% of income. Crucially, this is a share of income rather than salary, meaning you’re responsible for paying a share of any bonus or contractor payments as well as salary income. This is also a share of pre-tax income, so students should budget accordingly. Individuals paying on an ISA are expected to report changes in income to the ISA servicing company (though they generally verify income annually using tax returns).

Term: The term is the duration that you’re responsible for making payments. Most programs today offer terms that last anywhere from two years up to eight years. Every month that a student makes a payment, the remaining term goes down by one month.

Minimum income threshold: Education providers don’t want to issue ISAs that students can’t afford to pay. As a result, most put a minimum income below which students don’t have to make payments. These range from $30,000 up to $50,000.
Payment cap: Schools provide some protection to students who are extraordinarily successful from making unreasonably large payments. Generally these caps range from 1.5x - 2x the tuition amount.

Grace period: Most programs offer a grace period of at least 2-3 months after the end of a program before ISA payments would begin. This period gives everyone some time to start their job search without worrying about ISA payments or having to report on income immediately.

Deferment period: If a student remains below the minimum income after the grace period, the ISA is considered to be in a deferment status, meaning students don’t make payments and the term of the ISA doesn’t yet start (analogous to deferment in student debt). Typically ISAs come with maximum deferment periods of 1 to 3 years. During any deferment period, students make no payments, but the remaining number of monthly payments is not getting shorter. If a student remains below the minimum income threshold for the maximum deferment period, then the remaining term begins to get shorter. For example, let’s say a student completes a program paid for using an ISA with a 2-year term and a 2-year deferment period. If that student then has an income below the minimum threshold, first the 2-year deferment period will pass, and then the 2-year term itself would pass, at which point the ISA contract would be considered completed.

Refunds: Since ISAs result in a variable amount owed based on income, refunds work using either term reduction (pay for fewer months) or income-share reduction (pay a smaller % of income). With term reduction refunds, individuals are responsible for the same income-share, but for a reduced number of months. For example, if a person is owed a 50% refund on a 36 month, 10% income-share ISA, the person would only be responsible for an 18-month term. With income-share reduction, the share of income is reduced proportionately. With that same example of a 50% refund, the term would remain the same, but the income-share would be cut in half to 5%.

First, Thinkful’s Flexible Web Development Bootcamp— still the only part-time program in CIRR. This report covers students who enrolled between July 2015 and December 2015 (note part-time & self-paced programs in CIRR are based off enrollment date not graduation date so the date ranges appear earlier):

One of the biggest stories here is that CIRR has grown tremendously: What was first 13 schools is now 28. We’ve also strengthened the report itself, adding more valuable data to better help prospective students gauge their return-on-investment.

As we’ve said before, CIRR (or really any well-adopted reporting standard) brings transparency to education. Anyone who doesn’t report outcomes can’t be trusted. Schools that make a concerted effort to share outcomes will earn students’ trust; those who do not will fall by the wayside.

One final note: CIRR provides a deep dive into historical data, but its results are also delayed so graduates have time to find jobs. To see more up to date data check out what we publish on our Bootcamp Jobs Report. It follows the same CIRR calculations, but the data is life to date through the most recent month. It’s automatically updated every month on the 15th.

]]>Thinkful has always focused on aligning our success with our students. Two years ago we introduced audited student outcome reports and to this day we’re the only school that updates them every month. Then we began providing tuition reimbursement for students who didn’t find a job fast enough]]>https://www.thinkful.com/blog/announcing-outcome-based-payments/3a33b8bb-5a21-4c93-a707-895411bd7220Wed, 30 Aug 2017 14:30:00 GMTThinkful has always focused on aligning our success with our students. Two years ago we introduced audited student outcome reports and to this day we’re the only school that updates them every month. Then we began providing tuition reimbursement for students who didn’t find a job fast enough so that no student paid tuition disproportionate to their outcome. This year we were a founding member of CIRR to standardize how schools report outcomes.

Today we’re taking the next step by introducing “outcome-based financing.” Outcome-based financing means students only pay when they get a good enough job, and only pay proportionate to what they earn.

Students in our Full Time Web Development Bootcamp can select this plan starting today. Once finding a job, students pay 10-15% of their income for three years. Students pay nothing while they’re unemployed or earning below $40,000 / year, and the maximum any student will pay is $28,000.

We’ve been testing this plan for the last four months and have learned that students value the insurance it provides against unaffordable debt. Like our guarantee and outcomes reporting, students have confidence in Thinkful because they know we only succeed when students do – and that’s exactly how we want it. Outcomes-based payments make true something we’ve long known internally: we would invest in every Thinkful student.

As an educator I've seen the power of knowing the true name for a concept first hand. Particularly in programming, where you engage with this problem solving cycle constantly:

Encounter problem,

Struggle to describe problem,

Google furiously,

Read Stack Overflow, documentation, blog posts, GitHub issues,

Refine my problem description, or divide it into pieces

Repeat

This process, which is critical for every programmer of any stripe to get comfortable with, sometimes leads you to learn the "true name" of the concept underlying your issue, but it can also be incredibly inefficient.

Hearing from someone, "you have an event delegation problem", for example, is time saving and empowering.

That's why one of our goals at Thinkful, both in the content we develop and in the way we structure your relationship with a professional mentor, is to help you pick up a useful collection of true names more efficiently than you can on your own.

Today I learned the true name of True Name.

]]>The Atlanta tech scene is growing like never before. There are so many great opportunities to work for some amazing companies if you learn the programming skills that are currently in demand. Here’s why you should take advantage of this growth and start your career as a web developer.]]>https://www.thinkful.com/blog/3-reasons-why-you-should-join-a-coding-bootcamp-if-you-are-in-atlanta/7ecd913a-704b-48ee-98f6-4445729643e7Wed, 17 May 2017 17:15:04 GMTThe Atlanta tech scene is growing like never before. There are so many great opportunities to work for some amazing companies if you learn the programming skills that are currently in demand. Here’s why you should take advantage of this growth and start your career as a web developer.

The Atlanta tech scene is more diverse than most tech hubs. This is because Atlanta is already a very diverse city and there are many organizations making an effort to build a tech community that is representative of the actual Atlanta demographics. Some notable mentions include organizations like digitalundivided which promotes empowerment of Black and Latina women entrepreneurs. Or Black Men Code which works to inspire black men to get into in STEM fields and entrepreneurship with free and low-cost training. You can also find an LGBT community with the ATL LGBT Tech group.

These factors make becoming a developer in the Atlanta area a good long term career choice. If you are ready to start learning, checkout Thinkful’s Atlanta coding bootcamp. We use 1-on-1 mentorship and project-based learning to give you the skills you will need to become a web developer. Thinkful continues to provide career support after graduating the program and you can view our job placement stats.

]]>Interesting in becoming a data scientist? Here are some critical data science skills that you will need in order to make the career change. For each data science skill listed, there is also corresponding advice and resources on how to improve that specific skill. This is by no means an]]>https://www.thinkful.com/blog/4-skills-you-need-to-become-a-data-scientist/5ae10997-8b0b-407f-9f29-da2da128b0a6Tue, 09 May 2017 18:39:04 GMTInteresting in becoming a data scientist? Here are some critical data science skills that you will need in order to make the career change. For each data science skill listed, there is also corresponding advice and resources on how to improve that specific skill. This is by no means an exhausted list and instead is meant to be an overview of what you will need in order to succeed as a data scientist.

1. Problem solving intuition

Being good at problem solving is very important to being a good data scientist. As a practicing data scientist, you don't just need to know how to solve a problem that's defined for you, but also how to find and define those problems in the first place. It starts with becoming comfortable with not knowing the exact steps you will need to take to solve a problem.

There is no one right way to learn problem solving intuition. Personally, learning how to code has greatly expanded my greater problem solving skills (which is #3!). Here are some excellent TED talks that I would recommend watching on problem solving.

2. Statistical knowledge

When working in data science, the math and statistics applied can often be obscured by the fact that you're just writing code or using functions. The better you understand that underlying process, the better you'll be at using it. For example, you must be able to understand when variations in the data are statistically significant so that you can make bigger assumptions and conclusions about what’s going on. There is so much to learn in this realm and the more knowledge you have, the more accurate conclusions you will be able to draw from a given dataset.

Knowing a programming language is essential in order to become a data scientist. Programming allows you to take vasts amounts of data and process them quickly in a meaningful way. You’ll also be able to use programming to do things like scrape websites for data or use APIs. Right now some of the most popular languages for data science analytics include Python or R.

Not only will curiosity keep you driven to continue your learning in the long run, but it will also help you know what questions to ask when you are diving into a new set of data. Your first answer is rarely the right one. If you keep diving deeper you may find things that surprise you, or change your whole understanding of the problem!

Similar to problem solving skills, there is no one way to increase your curiosity. Something I’ve found works for me is setting aside an hour a day for “unstructured time”, before or after the typical tasks that make up my day. Giving yourself space for learning or projects outside of your day to day work is a great way to keep yourself curious and inspired.

Hopefully this helps you understand the skills you need to become a data scientist. Let me know if there is something else you think is a critical data science skill! Also, if you are ready to get fully immersed in learning these skills and more, check out Thinkful’s Data Science bootcamp. We use a combination of 1-on-1 mentorship, project-based curriculum, and career services to help you make the career transition and become a data scientist.

]]>...and adjusted by cost of living index.

You won’t see New York or California in the top 10 of this list. This list uses the average web developer salary by state along with a state’s cost of living index in order to rank the best states to live

]]>https://www.thinkful.com/blog/average-web-developer-salary-by-state/1f6caa41-06dc-4fd8-9cf7-b9ef204afe00Fri, 05 May 2017 21:38:59 GMT...and adjusted by cost of living index.

You won’t see New York or California in the top 10 of this list. This list uses the average web developer salary by state along with a state’s cost of living index in order to rank the best states to live in if you are earning a web developer salary.

Nationally, the average web developer salary is $77,622. You can check if your state’s web developer salary is above or below the average. Top 5 states included Texas, Virginia, Utah, Illinois and Wyoming while the bottom 5 states were Hawaii, Rhode Island, Vermont, Connecticut, and Montana. The big tech hubs, California and New York, had average web developer salaries that landed them in the #23 and #32 spots respectively.

A couple things to keep in mind as you read this 1) this doesn’t take into account factors like Quality of Life in those states 2) web developers are in demand just about anywhere so don’t let this list deter you in any way from becoming a web developer.

]]>TL;DR - Don’t worry about titles, instead aspire to be a better programmer.

Often those new to programming are confused about what exactly is the difference between a Web Developer, Software Developer, Software Engineer, etc. Here are some details on what set of skills these titles entail and

Often those new to programming are confused about what exactly is the difference between a Web Developer, Software Developer, Software Engineer, etc. Here are some details on what set of skills these titles entail and what exactly the difference is.

Web Developer - As a general rule Web Developers primarily work with websites, as opposed to building an application that would run on your computer (like Slack or Spotify, etc). If you are a web developer can imply being either a frontend, backend or full stack developer (read What is a full stack developer to learn more).

Software Developer/Engineer - This title covers a larger range of skill sets / possible roles. While it can refer to designing, building, and maintaining software and applications, but it has also been used when referring to web developers. Often using the term “engineer” implies you have a deeper knowledge of Computer Science topics (such as data structures and algorithms).

The truth is that, there isn’t a lot of consistency with titles and you certainly shouldn’t be worrying about it too much. Good programmers are good programmers, no matter what special title they have. The specific set of expectations around a given title vary greatly depending on the company. More important you should learn what programming languages / technologies the company uses or you would be working with if you were to be hired for that role.

Typically when a job posting or job title uses the word “full stack” they are referring to someone who has both “Frontend” and “Backend” Development knowledge. Taken more generally, it can refer to someone who

Typically when a job posting or job title uses the word “full stack” they are referring to someone who has both “Frontend” and “Backend” Development knowledge. Taken more generally, it can refer to someone who knows how to handle everything from project management to installing the correct operating system on a server. In other words, it is a programmer who can deal with the complete implementation of a website. Here are the four things that you could include in your definition of a full stack developer. As I mentioned before, Frontend Development and Backend Development are most commonly included.

Project Management - Can you work with clients / co-workers / designers and actually complete a project? Do you know how to plan timelines, make infrastructure decisions and gather the correct requirements? These often underrated skills are critical to becoming a productive and successful developer.

Frontend Development - Typically refers to programming languages that the browser can run such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This also includes JavaScript frameworks such as React. This is also often refer to as the “client side” development.

Backend Development - All the code that runs on servers, such as applications and API's that power your website. Some backend languages to choose from include Python, Ruby, and Java to name a few. You will also need to be able to work with and create databases, which requires knowledge of a programming language such as SQL.

DevOps Knowledge - Getting your code from github into production. This may mean installing operating systems (ex. setting a linux server so that your app can run) or managing the complex set of dependencies (ex. Installing the correct version of python) as your code base grows. This can greatly vary based on your setup and there are is whole set of engineers who specialize in this field.

In the same way a programmer can be “full stack” by having experience in each of these skills, they also have a programming “stack”. This refers to the programming languages that they feel comfortable working with within each of these categories. You may have heard of a programmer having a “MEAN” stack - this means they are familiar with MongoDB, Express.js, Angular, and Node.js. There is no one perfect stack to know, but if you are just getting started I would recommend looking a job posts for companies you are interested in working for and learning those programming languages initially.

The reality is that you should be constantly adding new skills to your arsenal, both frontend, backend and all the weird in between stuff (do you know about to set up mail forwarding for a domain? How are your bash scripting skills?).

What skills do you think “full stack” developers should be expected to have? Let us know! Or if you are ready to become a full stack developer check out Thinkful’s web developer bootcamp. We currently teach Node.js and React in our stack.